Since its official release on April 26, Samsung’s new smartphone, Galaxy S4, has been enjoying record-breaking sales in Russia. According to Mobile Research Group, in the first three days, over 15,000 handsets have been sold.
“This is a record for a device in this price range. The iPhone 5 did considerably worse in the first days of its launch. Yet, we shall wait till the end of the first week to come to any conclusions,” a senior analyst with Mobile Research Group, Eldar Murtazin, said.
In Russia, Galaxy S4 prices range from 30,000 rubles ($970) for a 16GB model to 37,000 rubles ($1,195) for a 64GB model.
Samsung’s previous model, Galaxy S3, became the first South Korean smartphone to outperform iPhone in worldwide sales. In the first week after Galaxy S4 became available for pre-order, advance orders for it were four times that for its predecessor, Samsung announced. Last year, there were 9 million pre-orders for Galaxy S3 worldwide.
Galaxy S4’s record-breaking sales in Russia come as a result of the inspired preparatory work Samsung has done with its partners, mobile phone operators and retailers, which have direct access to consumers.
For instance, Samsung made a deal with a leading Russian operator, MTS, whereby buyers of the new smartphone will not have to pay for their calls for a year. This is not a typical offer for Russia, where phones are rarely sold with a contract.
However, MTS does not stand to lose anything, as the company’s spokesperson, Irina Agarkova, is convinced: Owners of modern smartphones spend four times as much on their mobile phone bills than owners of ordinary phones, and it pays off to win them over and retain them.
Russia is a key market for mobile phone manufacturers, Samsung representatives in the country say.
“The number of handsets sold here in three days is the same that it would take a week to sell in the U.S.,” an informed source said, explaining why the new Galaxy smartphone was released in Russia first.
The Russian smartphone market is growing all the time. According to major mobile phone retailer Euroset, in the first quarter of 2013, smartphones made up 40.6 percent of the whole of the Russian phone market in terms of number of handsets sold, and 78.2 percent in terms of sales. Compared with the same period in 2012, the number of handsets sold rose by 34.1 percent.
Based on materials from Vedomosti, this article was first published in Russia Beyond The Headlines, an international source of political, business and cultural news and analysis.
